Toll violations from a year ago

[seabass07]

What is the name of your state? Florida

In palm beach county, I got several toll violations from the sunpass not working. I did not know about this until yesterday. The violations are $250 each. Lawyers are telling me that it is $100 per ticket. If there are 15 or 20 of them, this is a rediculous amount of money! I have several questions...

1. Can I attend court for this matter even though the tickets are in my wife's name?

2. What is the likelihood of these cases getting thrown out considering I had a sunpass and I did not know it was not working? My wife's address on her license was not current so we did not get any notices or anything.

3. How do I go about getting a court date for this?

4. Do I have to appear for each ticket or is it just one court appearance? (apparently palm beach county is different. The lawyers I have spoken to say that they have to file a motion for each ticket.)

I'm sure I will think of more questions later...I don't know what to do about this. Thank you for your help!

 

[FlyingRon]

How is it that you have just gotten around to this? Did you ignore all the violation notices earlier? You were warned when you subscribed that if you were cited you had a limited time to respond. If you had dealt with this earlier, they would have just charged you the toll and dismissed things.

Actually the fine can be as much as $500 per ticket.

Are you within the 75 day "request a hearing" window?

Has you or your wife's registration/license been suspended yet?

Why aren't you asking the lawyers you talked to?

 

[seabass07]

Yesterday I got a letter saying that her license will be suspended on april 16. That was when i found out about the tickets. If i had known, i would have called sunpass. I need to know how to repuest a court date. So far, i have only spoken to lawyer assistants that were not very knowledgable. They only quoted me large prices.

 

[seabass07]

I think I will have to write to the clerk of courts to request a hearing. Apparently the auto replenish of $25 did not go through for some reason and they decided to not attempt to replenish again. I did not receive any notification of anything since the address on my wife's license was her mother's address. We did not receive anything! This is a nightmare with 18 violations.

Since I was the one driving, can I appear instead of my wife? To answer any inquiry as to why I know i was driving, we live in Miami and only I would have been driving in Palm beach county. I commuted there for 7 months going through 4 tolls each way. They should have called or something!

 

[FlyingRon]

They aren't required to call.

Where did all the notices go (both the failure to autoreplenish plus all the violations)?

Your ability to contest these are severely diminished at this point.

It looks like you (or your wife) are 100% responsible. Part of your agreement with SunPass is to deal with the violation notices and pay the missing toll rather than blowing them off.

According to the agreement, once a payment fails you are subject to being kicked out of the auto replenish program. If a charge failed for whatever reason (their mistake, your credit card/bank error, card expired, card over limit, etc..) it was incumbent on you to make the missing payment and reestablish the account.

I'm not sure what your options are, obviously these lawyers have more experience than we do.

 

[patstew]

I did not receive any notification of anything since the address on my wife's license was her mother's address. We did not receive anything! This is a nightmare with 18 violations.

What did your mother-in-law do with the notices? And why in the world doesn't your wife have the correct address on her license? In many states, that's a violation in and of itself.

 

[seniorjudge]

1. Can I attend court for this matter even though the tickets are in my wife's name?

A: No.


2. What is the likelihood of these cases getting thrown out considering I had a sunpass and I did not know it was not working? My wife's address on her license was not current so we did not get any notices or anything.

A: Between zero and none.


3. How do I go about getting a court date for this?

A: Ask the clerk.


4. Do I have to appear for each ticket or is it just one court appearance? (apparently palm beach county is different. The lawyers I have spoken to say that they have to file a motion for each ticket.)

A: You are asking strangers on an internet forum a question that you have asked lawyers who practice in that area have already answered?

 

[Irishmann]

I have had a somewhat similar situation.

My battery was low and it did not register 4 tolls between Miami and West Palm. I was out of the country when the reminders arrived. My license was suspended for non payment of the fines. I paid the fines online ( $800 ) and had my license re-instated. It was suspended again for 12 points in 12 months. ( I was unaware that paying the fines also resulted in 3 points for each violation.

I went to Broward clerks office and filed a motion to have the case re-opened. There will be a new hearing on 5/28. I did the same with Miami/Dade but have not heard of a court date as yet.

I had been out of the country for months and have the proof, so I am hopefull of having the points removed. You are required to notify DMV in Florida of a change of address within 10 days. That may be your downfall.


**************......" 4. Do I have to appear for each ticket or is it just one court appearance? (apparently palm beach county is different. The lawyers I have spoken to say that they have to file a motion for each ticket.)..."

I had spoken to lawyers also. I simply went to the clerks office. They have a standard form there that you fill in in a few minutes. You request a new hearing and give a brief account of why. There may be one form for all violations, or you may need to fill in one for each. It may be worth your while getting a lawyer. Are you aware that these violations carry 3 points each..?


.

 

[FlyingRon]

Please do NOT tack on to other peoples threads. Start your own.

Anything is worth a shot, but you're responsible for answering the citations regardless of whether you were out of country or off the planet. Condition of using the toll box.

I suspect if the battery was low, the beeps/green light wasn't giving you normal indications either.

 

[Irishmann]

Please do NOT tack on to other peoples threads. Start your own.

Anything is worth a shot, but you're responsible for answering the citations regardless of whether you were out of country or off the planet. Condition of using the toll box.

I suspect if the battery was low, the beeps/green light wasn't giving you normal indications either.

I don't quite understand what you mean by..." do NOT tack on to other peoples threads ". I was giving advise based on my similar experience. Nothing else. I was not seeking advise, I was just trying to be helpfull to someone else.

He wanted to know how to re-open his case. I gave my personal experience.

And yes, I am responsible for answering any violations, even if I am out of the country. But, the court system has an element of fairness built into it. Mitigating circumstances will always be listened to.

As to my low battery. It worked fine on some of the toll booths coming from Miami to West Palm, but did not register in four of them.

Today, I got word from Miami/Dade that, they to, have agreed to reopen my case.

Incidentally, I spoke to four attorneys before going and filing the motions to reopen myself. Each one of them told me that there are huge problems with the whole Sunpass violation issue. Each one of them stated that there are a huge number of cases where people are contesting.

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[Krizteenah]

I'm sorry, but you really should have noticed something- coming from someone who a] commutes from Miami to St. Lucie almost bi-weekly via Turnpike and b]whose father works for the tech department of the Turnpike, you really have nothing.

I mean, my mother calls me [she's the one who monitors the money on our family's Passes] wanting to know why I didn't tell her I was low [mine doesn't make noise/flash, and with the new gate that you don't get the little "Low Balance" light, so I have no clue]. They send you a letter saying, "You owe us $6.00" you pay it, and you go on with life. To disregard them for so long, under any circumstances, is just irresponsible.

Did you not notice the $25 not being deducted form your bank accounts? Keeping track of this stuff really help in this kind of a situation?

 

[TinkerBelleLuvr]

With Sunpass, you can set it up to Email you, along with having your correct address. When my battery was low, then sent me a letter (sunpass had my address) that said to go to RadioShack to have them change it.

As for the violations showing up, that is probably based on the address where the car was registered. It isn't just the driver's license that has to be update; you have to update the state with the correct address for your tags.